Shannon Miller: My Child, My Hero by Claudia Miller

[hmmmm]

Miller is on of those gymnasts that I consider to be successful despite the coach. Physically talented and driven enough to overcome the lack of coaching talent and poor choices.

 

[QuietColours]

Chapter Eighteen: Refusal to Sideline

• Championships
  • Claudia received a phone call from Shannon while at work. Shannon's legs hurt and felt weak from the long workouts. She had taken a bad fall off beam and landed on her head, dazing her enough to worry Steve. He had ended beam and taken her to bars, but she temporarily could not remember her bar routine. Steve sent her back to her room to nap and was trying to decide if he should pull her from the competition and petition her to World Trials
  • It was easy to see Steve as the cause of Shannon's problems right now, but Shannon knew he wanted what was best for her
  • In the evening, Steve had her warm up her Optional routines to see how things were going. It wasn't her best, but it was better than the morning. He also knew she was a real competitor, and she made it clear she was fully recovered and planned to finish Championships. He let her compete
  • Optionals were a struggle. Shannon fell on beam on her third LOSO. Floor and vault went well. Out of her reverse hecht on bars, she landed her handstand on the low bar off and had to arch to save it
  • Shannon's errors on bars and beam put her in second behind Dominique Moceanu.Shannon was disappointed but not disillusioned. She would have won without her major errors, she was still number two in the country, and she was in a great position to make the Worlds team
  • EF were just floor and vault because of her errors on bars and beam. She hit the Yurchenko arabian and a tsuk arabian for vault gold and had a great floor with an OOB for bronze.
• Steve was upset Shannon had missed being national champion again. He had two other elites qualified for Trials, Heather Brink and Alecia Ingram. Steve wanted more than one gymnast on the Worlds team and pushed them hard. When Shannon did not warm up her clear hip to handstands well, he had her do fifty in a row. The next day she was so sore she couldn't do the compulsory bars dismount well and he realized he was pushing too hard
• World Trials
  • Heather injured her ankle shortly after arriving and had to be scratched from the meet. She had been tenth at Championships, and at least one gymnast had declined Trials, so Steve thought he had had a good chance
  • Shannon was first after compulsories. But overall, with the combination of compulsories and optionals and scores carried over from championships, Moceanu had the edge
  • In Optionals, Shannon had slightly rough but okay vaults, had the highest score of the meet on bars, and excellent beam and floors. She had the high scores for the meet, but Moceanu had the higher combined scores
  • During her floor warm up, Shannon turned her ankle and landed awkwardly on her FTDB. The pain was immediate and intense. She walked over to the side and prayed. If she needed to get through the floor routine to assist her team at World Championships, nothing would stop her
• Worlds
  • Shannon didn't complain much about her ankle, but Steve could tell she was in a lot of pain and he had to be careful
  • The ankle responded quickly to treatment and in a few days she was hitting solid routines on all events.
  • At Worlds, did very well in compulsories. Steve and Peggy questioned some of her scores. The Americans had to compete in an early round, and Steve thought it cost them some tenths. Shannon was first in the Americans and third in the world after compulsories
  • During warm ups before Optionals, Shannon landed hard on the sore ankle and twisted it slightly. Beam dismounts weren't going well, and Steve wasn't pleased. He had her do a few more, and by the time she was done the ankle hurt a lot. Shannon tried to pray silently to manage the pain. The completed the workout, but the next morning she could hardly walk. Steve knew she could not compete up to par
  • This was bad on an individual level and the team needed her. Dawes, Borden, and Chow were home with injuries and Phelps had just had knee surgery and couldn't compete all events. Strug and Shannon were the only members of the team with Worlds experience
  • Steve and Shannon thought she could compete bars. She hit a solid routine. She was not scheduled do to beam, but as the rotation drew to a close Steve thought that even with the ankle she could do a solid routine, and told her to do a full twist instead of a double if her ankle hurt too much. She hit a good routine and did the double–she wasn't going to end it with a full twist. She was limping severely afterward
  • Shannon wasn't supposed to do floor. However, Steve and Peggy decided she could manage it if they rearranged her floor routine. They took out the whip back, leaving just a full in for her opening pass, and added a more difficulty leap to make up for the lack of series bonus. Shannon agreed. She didn't get the score she would have liked, but it was the highest American score
  • Vault was America's weakest event. The team was in contention for bronze, but Steve didn't think they could get it without Shannon. Since the better of the two vaults scores was taken, Shannon could do just one vault. She agreed. It wasn't good enough to guarantee bronze, so she vaulted a second time and got a better score. The US got the bronze by .16.
  • Shannon was ecstatic that the team had won bronze and that she had contributed so much, but her ankle wasn't doing well. Steve planned to withdraw her from the AA, but she wasn't sure it was necessary.
  • At home Worlds was taped and being shown over several weeks. They didn't hear from Shannon again while on the trip, so they didn't know what was happening. The newspapers did describe her injury in great detail, and they saw her name in the list of AA competitors in the Sports section
  • They weren't surprised, because Shannon felt a duty to her coaches, her family, her fans, and herself, and she was the reigning world champion going into what was probably her last worlds
  • Shannon finished 12th in the AA and never regretted her decision to compete
  • Steve convinced her there was no point in doing all four event finals. She didn't have the vaults for the vault final (she was struggling with just the Yurchenko arabian), and he didn't want her to tumble and damage her ankle more
  • On bars, Shannon hit a good but not great set and finished out of the medals. In beam she was fourth. She was proud her performance, even though she finished with just the team bronze
• With Championships, Trials, and Worlds all in the fall, Shannon needed rest. Workouts were lighter for a while, but not shorter
• She registered for two classes at the University of Oklahoma and now had homework and tests to make up. Steve had wanted her to take the year off from school, but Shannon was insistent–school was important to her. She didn't plan to give up gymnastics completely after the Olympics, but she did want a real career
• She had a few appearances after Worlds
• Shannon's ankle was doing better after Christmas and she began to train aggressively. Steve and Laurie had married in November and been away for almost two weeks for their wedding and honeymoon; Shannon had been hoping to go to Hawaii for the wedding but couldn't make it with school and other commitments
• Worlds had motivated Shannon to train harder than ever. She had seen everyone else's level increasing and wanted to keep up. She wanted a new skill on beam, a new dismount on bars, a new tumbling pass on floor, and a new vault. She wanted to lead the American team, not just be part of it. And she wanted an Olympic gold.
• Vault–she needed more difficult vault. Her tsuk was out of a 10.0, but it never seemed to score well for anyone. Steve wanted her to learn a Yurchenko 1.5; Shannon wanted to relearn the DTY (better this time) that she had tried in 1993. Rick Newman had begun training her on it while Steve was gone. Shannon was nervous when Steve returned, because she knew he'd wanted her to learn the 1.5. He was unpleasantly surprised and let them know in no uncertain terms that he made the coaching decisions. He let Shannon continue, but pounced on every mistake, slowing her progress and hurting her confidence. But December he gave her an ultimatum: Either get it on competition height by the end of the month or start the 1.5. Shannon was distressed, and the vault very uneven. She thought she could learn it by Nationals, but she needed Steve's support. She asked her parents to talk to Steve
• Steve wasn't happy to hear from them. They told him that if Shannon was really interested in working on a skill, she was much more likely to acquire it and that she would progress better if he was less critical. The time frame also felt unnecessarily rigid, since it didn't need to be competition ready until June. She was prepared to switch to the 1.5 if she wasn't making real progress by mid-January. Steve disagreed, saying they were wasting valuable time. The time frame stood (unclear if she still had to get it to competition height). The week before Christmas it was getting much better and Steve was easing up on the criticism
• That Christmas, Troy (15) got a drum set. They soon discovered the downside of living with a drummer (the electric guitar had been bad enough). Shannon and Troy agreed on an 11 o'clock curfew for drumming.
• Shannon again flew into their San Antonio vacation so she could get a couple extra workouts. On vacation, Shannon told them her wrist was very sore–bad enough that Steve had decided not to have her vault. They hoped a few days off would help it. Since Shannon had often trained injured, they weren't alarmed.

 

[RedBirdie]

Reading Shannon's 1995 world experience was brutal. Like watching someone get tortured. Why would you do that to someone?

And clearly, at the time she wrote this, Claudia didn't see much wrong with it. I wonder if she sees things differently now. Somehow, I doubt it.

 

[IratePanda]

I usually hesitate to use clinical labels, but it sounds like Claudia had a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. I also think that her Christian Science beliefs made it easier for her to ignore or downplay Steve's abuse. After all, Shannon could always just pray the pain away.

 

[cftmoonlight79]

Nothing like sending a clearly concussed athlete to go nap. What a dumbass

 

[IratePanda]

Oh, yeah. I wanted to mention something about that. Concussion protocols weren't as well-developed thirty years ago, but everyone was supposed to know that sleep was a no-no for the first 24 hours (IIRC). And Claudia just reports this calmly and unironically. SMH.

 

[RAFIKI]

When Shannon did not warm up her clear hip to handstands well, he had her do fifty in a row. The next day she was so sore she couldn't do the compulsory bars dismount well and he realized he was pushing too hard

 

[Kittentoes]

I think she has a concussion, so hard seem like a great choice. Geez. I wonder what that smeghead I'd up to now?

Glorious lack of any self reflection on anyone's part.

I am glad for my mother. I ran cross country in school. I was awful. I'm a short limbed, stocky diabetic. But I was stubborn enough to finish,which meant that the good runners' scores counted. I got horrible shin splints, and the trainer taped my feet. After that meet, when I took my socks off, my shoes were full of blood.
My mother forbade me to run for several days. I protested, because I learned from gymnastics that heroic girls just keep going through pain, injury, abuse, and starvation. I had to get the team score to count! My mom said I was significantly more important than that, and we went to go get some dinner and bandages. I was miffed then, but my older, wiser self is deeply grateful.

 

[Peridot]

Interesting how well Peggy is coming off in this saga considering how her recent career has gone. Guess the stuff she saw was so normalized, it carried over to her career in Australia. And probably if you study at the School of Karyoli and Nunno, your perspective is going to be skewed.

I was thinking the same thing. It’s odd to hear her described as the reasonable and kind one

 

[Peridot]

To coach competitive gymnasts, USAG requires coach do the following:

• Pass US Center for SafeSport Core Course annually
• Pass Safety & Risk Management every 4 years
• Pass Tough Coaching or Emotional Abuse: Knowing When The Line Has Been Crossed (not sure how frequently you have to take this)
• Pass Fundamentals of Gymnastics Instruction (again, not sure how frequently this must be taken)
• Plus background check and concussion safety protocol

Those are all online. Not a single hands-on course is required to be a coach in the US. No continuing education is required, just passing the same online courses as required.

Back in the very late 1990s when I started coaching, all we had to do was pass Safety & Risk Management once every 4 years. Although back then we at least had to find a live course and pretend to pay attention. No idea when that was implemented, but I imagine back in the day, one just paid the USGF coach member fee and was credentialed to be on the competition floor, with no other barriers to entry.

Background checks weren't mandated until 2018, iirc. That's also when USAG required all staff at member gyms to be background checked and pass the Safe Sport course. Previously, rec coaches didn't have to be USAG members, no background check, no education at all.

That is absolutely wild. A completely different world to what I know

 

[RichardL]

That is absolutely wild. A completely different world to what I know

I was fully credentialed as a teenager and I remember nothing about being tested to do anything really. The other coaches at my gym were stupid and basically illiterate though, and of course they all had full credentials, so I'm sure I wasn't surprised at the time that I basically had to prove no knowledge or skills in order to take a group of level 10s to States.